Crashing Stars
by acricket
Summary: Your name is Tavros Nitram. You are on a voyage with your crew to explore space. And you have explored your way onto an alien vessel and into an alien civil war.
1. Chapter 1

AN: this fic will contain genderbend trolls and humanized trolls as well as troll versions of some humans. And obviously, none of the characters appearing in this story belong to me.

Chapter 1

Tavros smiled as his hands danced over the organic computer, the machine reacting more to his will then the press of his fingers over the buttons. His computer(he called her Tinkerbull, she seemed to like it) twittered back at him, spitting readings out on the screens in front of him. He nodded his head. Good, good. All the readings looked normal. A red line in the code caught his eye. A chip had to be replaced. He sighed. "I'll, get those quick, Tink. Hold on." He didn't need to talk at all, really, the computer could hear his thoughts just fine he knew, but he liked to.

He hummed a tune as he pulled himself towards the computer he was hanging onto and pushed himself away, using the momentum to turn himself around in the zero-gravity environment. He loved having a deck to himself. It allowed him turn off the artificial gravity without bothering anyone else. The feeling of floating weightless like he was made him feel free.

Their ship, Heir of Breath, or HOB for short, was a small ship, designed for four people to survive on. She was divided into 4 sections. Each designed for one member of her four man crew.

He caught himself on the doorway and maneuvered himself in the small cramped room. the only things that were in the room were a wall of white containers and a small bench. Each container would grow a few specific pieces. He drifted over to the one closest to him and slid it open with practice ease. Inside was a small chip floating in a pinkish liquid. He wasted no time in taking it out. He hit a button on the side, telling the system to re-grow the copy he had taken.

These ships really were a marvel. They were the newest models, all their electrical components were also semi-organic and bio-engineered. Everything that they needed (well accept for things like the outer hull) could be grown. It cut down on the amount of supplies they had to carry, though they had to grow the large components in smaller parts...

He pushed himself back to the doorway, then to the part of the ship which needed to have the chip replaced. He tilted his head as he commanded the ship to pop the hatch so he could work on her.

That was his job, he was a mechanic. Trained to look after the ship assigned to his squadron. It was easy for him, being a technopath. It allowed him to connect and command the machines without touching the controls. He could override everything and make them do what he wanted, well, most of the time... He rubbed idly at the side of his head, where a thin, long scar ran across his temple, identical to the one on the other side.

All technopaths had to get these modifications. His father, Rufio Nitram, also had them. They were designed to enhance a technopath's abilities, but it didn't work with him. He'd lost most of his natural ability when he woke up from the surgery. They couldn't explain what had happened, not that it mattered now. It was too risky to try to reverse it after. He was only thankful it hadn't taken away his ability to talk with the machines, which he loved. Machines never judged and never expected things of you. He liked that.

Tink tittered musically in the back of his mind. That was one of the reasons why, when he'd been assigned the new ship, the first thing he had done was replace the system in charge of his section with an older computer he kept. The AIs, the longer they were around, the more personality they got, and Tink was the most pleasant one he had ever met, she was also prone to singing. It made him miss some of his other machines.

An angry buzzing filtered into his head, made him wince. It was the ships primary computer. He didn't like talking to it that much. It was crabby and abrasive, often leaving him with a dull headache. "Just, hold a second, ok?" he muttered as he switched out the chips.

The computer, however, was always rather impatient. It ignored his thoughts, and immediately began to throw the results of its daily scans at him, making it hard to concentrate. He shut his eyes to better listen. It must be important if it ignored him, right?

The scans revealed nothing abnormal, which made him frown in confusion. There must have been something.. "There isn't anything else?" There was more buzzing (it really had one of the worst voices) before it let him know that he had to get to the main bridge. It cut out as soon as he gave an affirmative response. Why couldn't it just tell him?

The panel closed itself and he pushed off of the wall, heading to the doorway that connected him to the rest of the ship. He hit the opposite wall, turned himself around and dragged himself to the wheel chair that was strapped down. He quickly settled in and with a quick thought, the gravity was restored.

It was always such a jolt, suddenly regaining the feeling of falling under his weight. His two uselss legs were flopped outside of his wheel chair and he had to move them and strap them in. Tink released his chair without him asking and opened the door.

He didn't have one of those electric wheelchairs, by choice. He liked having to work out his upper body, kept him fit, kind of. The ship was small, so there weren't really many places to go. There were only four sections, branching off from a main 'hub' of sorts where they ate and planned. It was where he went.

The doors opened to the central hub. Sollux was there, fiddling with something. He raised his head at the sound of the door. "Hey." was all that he said as he turned back to what he was working on. Tavros didn't mind. Sollux was almost always suffering from a migraine and didn't like to talk unless he had to, though that might have also been because of his lisp. Tavros had hated talking when he couldn't pronounce things right, or when he stuttered. He still didn't like to sometimes, though he was so comfortable around his three squadron mates that stuttering was rarely a problem around them anymore.

A piece of paper lifted up into the air in front of Sollux, who studied it closely before turning back to his work. Sometimes Tavros was jealous of his squadron mate's abilities and his control over them. But would never really want them. They made Sollux powerful, an asset in battle, but they were also not natural. Most of the manufactured psychics had a hard time living outside the labs. Sollux had been lucky, and only had to deal with heightened senses, though it still caused him severe migraines.

The main computer terminal sat in the middle of the room. It was one of the only computers to not have a screen. It instead had a holographic interface. Right now it was showing a small blinking light somewhere in the star system they were currently drifting through.

"Hey Sollux? How long has this, uh, been blinking?" Tavros asked as he ran his hands over the control panel, lightly touching the buttons. The closer he was to it, especially if he was touching it, the better he was at communing.

Sollux ground his teeth and turned around. "I don't know. It's blinking?" He twisted around in his chair, his little project, a small weapon, lay in pieces.

"Uh, yeah." he reached forwards with one hand to touch on the small blinking light. It refused to open it without verification from him. All crew members could access anything on the ship, it seemed rather silly for them to have verification online, but they couldn't turn it off.

He drew his hand back quickly as the whole system lit up, lines of text flashing up before being replaced by another line. Tavros tried to follow the lines, but even he couldn't. The ship had stopped responding besides giving an vague impression of annoyance at being bothered.

"What the fuck is it doing?" Sollux had appeared over his shoulder, his eyes were probably narrowed behind his tinted goggles.

"I-I don't know. It's not responding..." He tried again to get the computer to respond, becoming more and more insistent. Finally, lines of code it had been spewing merged into a single line of text. "What..?"

**-I hope this motherfuckin' reaches someone. This is ICRA 9. We are stranded, our engines are fucking gone. If there is anyone in this quadrant, show a sister some assistance.-**

There was a strange symbol after it, it looked like the symbol for Capricorn.

"An SOS message..?"

"Can't be an SOS. There is fucking no one in this section. There shouldn't be.." Sollux leaned over and started hitting keys. He was right. There should be no one here. Earth had no colonies here, human exploration hadn't ever ventured this far out before. His ship's job was to chart new space and locate planets capable of population or sustaining life.

Sollux let out an annoyed huff as he brought the star map back up, but the location of where the distress signal was coming from wasn't showing. He pursed his lips "Get the computer to do some scans or something..."

Tavros nodded as he ordered the computer to do some scans, searching for lifeforms and ships. "We should go wake up Karkat..."

Sollux grunted. "I'll go get our leader. You go scan some things. See if you can reply." Sollux moved towards the control room, where Karkat's room was. There was a blue glow around the parts that Sollux had left lying around. They fit themselves back together and drifted towards his hands.

Tavros called up a keypad, and it appeared in front of him. He hoped his message would make it through.

**-Hi. This is the HOB. Can you give us your current co-ordinates? We might be able to help.-**

He heard some yelling and the sounds of something crashing at the end of the hall that Sollux had disappeared down. Karkat should be here soon. The angry buzzing returned.

**-Thank the false motherfucking Mirthful Messiahs. You're a lifesaver, motherfucker.-**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"You got the damn computer to play a fucking joke on me. There are no goddamn ships anywhere." Karkat stared through the view port at the empty space. His short hair had grown slightly wild. They were supposed to have it cut short, not past their ears, but who would enforce it here?

"B-but where else could the message come from? Our scanners won't reach all the way to spaceport Zillyhoo. It can't be from there. I, uh, sent messages to other ships, but the closest one is in the opposite, uh, direction from this." Tavros said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat

His leader glared at him, but turned back to the ship's controls, scanning the surrounding space. There was nothing but asteroids floating around. Karkat had to manually drive the ship to avoid the larger ones that would crush them.

"This is a fucking waste of time. There is fucking nothing out there. " He sighed as he turned the ship rather sharply to avoid. a cluster of small asteroids

Tavros wrung his hands where he sat in his wheelchair, trying to search with his eyes as well, though Karkat's eyes were better. Sollux had gone back to check their equipment. Tavros could do it, or rather, could have gotten the computer in charge of that section to do it, but Sollux had refused. Karkat had told him to just let Sollux go. "He needs something to fucking focus his useless mind on." Tavros felt equally useless here. What if the ship had picked up nothing, or had picked up something from an older time? It wasn't unheard of. That's probably what it was. It was all just a coincidence that the delayed reply fit in with what he had said-

"Fuck. Tavros. Get the fucking lazy ass computer to do some more fucking scans. I can't see fucking shit out here." The ship lurched to the side, the left wing flying up. "Tavros?"

"Okay Karkat..." Tavros concentrated on the panel in front of him. He let his hands brush over the keyboard. The computer seemed annoyed at being asked to do another scan. It had the co-ordinates, though they seemed odd to him, had sent them to the asteroid field. The scan found nothing new. Tav frowned and questioned about the co-ordinates. All he got was an annoyed buzz that made him wince.

Karkat hit a few buttons above him before looking at Tavros.

"We can't stay here searching forever Tav. If we don't find something within the next hour, we gotta stop." He swore suddenly when a siren went off and whipped his head back to the controls, causing the craft to swerve to avoid collision.

"What is going on in here?" Aradia stood at at the doorway, hanging onto the frame, wearing her red jumpsuit. The linguist's hair was ruffled and not in her usual pony tail. She must have just woken up and seemed rather annoyed.

"Fuckface here thinks that there's a broken ship around here." Karkat quickly righted the craft.

"A ship?" She asked, going farther into the main room and sitting in the unused co-pilots chair.

"Yeah. HOB picked up the signal. Sent one out, and they replied... They said the ship was around here..." Tavros told her.

Aradia slipped on her headset and started going through the computer's logs. "It wasn't a stray transmission form one of the other ships?"

"No. I checked with them. No-one is in this sector."

"Hmm. Maybe-"

"Oh my fucking god."

Aradia and Tavros both turned their heads to the main view-port at Karkat's shout. There, half hidden by a large asteroid was a ship. It was easily twice or three times the side of theirs. It was a hulking thing made of black metal. There were no lights that they could make out on it. The bottom portion of the ship was a gaping mess. There was what could only be ship parts drifting around it.

"Fuck me. So there is a ship. Aradia, is there any regulation shit we should be doing?"

"We will need to identify who it belongs to. Can you bring us closer? Shine the search light on it. Does it have any writing or symbols on it?" She was leaning on her command board, being careful to not hit any buttons.

"Fuck. I'm not getting any closer to it with this ship. There is just too much debris. I don't want two fucking ships stuck out here because we were fucking dumbasses." He grit his teeth. "Tav! Get a light on it already."

Tavros couldn't stop looking at the ship. Now that he could see it, he realised that it was, somehow, an organic machine. He could hear it and it was dying. Its long drawn out cries were soft and angry and sad. But, that was impossible. There were no organic computers, or ANYTHING that was man-made that could feel pain, there was no point to program something like that. It took him a second to respond to Karkat's order. He sniffed as he focused his mind on the ships computer to shine a light on that dark, dark hull.

The damage looked worse with the light on it. If there was any kind of insignia or other identifiable marks they were all on the portions that had been destroyed. Sitting motionless in an asteroid field was one of the most stupid things someone could do and this ship was not fairing well.

Karkat bit his lips and cursed, sitting back in his seat. He ran his hand through his hair, debating what to do. Humanity was a united front, at least the last time they had checked, which had been ages ago. There was no reason for a ship to be in this section though.

"Karkat. If we are going to help them we need to do so now. That ship is not going to last much longer. There is no time for us to get close enough to send out a message to Zillyhoo and we can't stay here."

Karkat swore. "We will help these fucktards to get their ship at least functional or get their escape pods functional. Tav, send a message to go wake up Sollux. Both of you are coming with me to that ship. Aradia you stay on the ship and get her out of this damn asteroid field. If the three of us do not, for some dipshit of a reason, come back, you take the ship and go straight to Zillyhoo and report this." He was standing up by the time he had finished. Aradia nodded as she took the main seat from him, and began to tap away at the controls.

"What are you waiting for? Get your fucking ass moving and ready the damn scout pod." Karkat moved past him, towards his own room, probably to get his own weapons and equipment. Tavros gulped as he tried once again to shut his mind to the dying ship's song.

He carefully turned himself around and wheeled himself towards the door, sending out a message to be delivered to Sollux. He made his way quickly back to the his section. He had several things to get ready before Karkat got here.

Tink chirped a query at him when he entered and didn't immediately strap in his wheelchair. "No Tink. Leave the gravity on, but raise the Scout pod. Me, Karkat and Sollux are going on a scouting mission." He said as he wheeled himself around room, collecting some standard, universal parts and wires. These he placed in a pack with his other sounds of the other ship was so haunting. He couldn't get it out of his head. No ship had a voice that strong. None.

The floor panels shuddered as they shifted, drawing back, out of the way. The Scouting vessel rose out of its storage area, taking up most of the space on his working floor, leaving only enough for him to move around it.

The ship was pill shaped and smooth, designed to be aerodynamic and fast. It looked sleek in his opinion and had a marvelous voice. They didn't get to use him often though. Most of the time they sent down probes to the planets below to test the atmosphere and the conditions on the planet while they circled. The rich voice told him the results of its function tests.

He had everything, he thought, as he strapped the portable computer to his arm. It was large and clunky, adding a good 3 inches to his arm and sat like a large wristband, covering his whole forearm. He bit his lip as he looked around before moving to the wall and hooking it up.

"Tink? can you transfer yourself? Ah, use the back-up AI to run things while you are gone." She chirped in confirmation and the lights in his room flickered as the controls were switched over.

The computer on his arm blinked and he heard her voice saying transfer complete. The back-up AI was quiet, going through it's standard functions. This AI wasn't designed to handle so much. But they would come back. He was sure. Yeah.

The scout was ready to go, everything on it was working. He was double checking his pack, making sure he had at least four of everything, when Karkat and Sollux came in, both with their own packs. Tavros frowned at the scout, it would be a tight fit...

"Lets get our asses moving. I don't want to stay here longer than we need to." He said as he hit a button on the outer full of the ship and went in, placing his pack in the storage compartments on the wall and taking the pilots chair.

A groggy looking Sollux followed after him, dressed in a yellow combat suit and his sidearms strapped to his side, also placing his things in the compartments and taking the next seat, directly behind the pilots chair. Tavros rolled himself in last, tossing his bag in and anchoring his chair to the floor. Karkat had already started up the ship, flicking on switches and pushing dials on the spartan control system.

"Tav, prepare for launch. Aradia can't stay here forever."

Tav nodded. The Ai responded immediately, drawing the ship back into the floor. It waited until the panels were locked back in place before the doors at the end of the scouts storage compartment. The gravity was turned off and Karkat activated the thrusters, propelling it slowly forwards, only speeding after they cleared the doors...

Karkat expertly maneuvered it, and passed HOB, which was already turning around, heading away from the mystery ship. The closer they got, the louder it's wail was. Tavros shut his eyes and concentrated on Tink's song. It helped like he though it would.

They made a pass around the ship, looking for anything that seemed like doors to a docking system. Karkat had sent out signals to the ship, but there was no response besides static. He cursed as he flipped off the comms. "Tav, can you connect to the ship? Get the fucking doors open?" He asked.

Tavros started to shake his head no but stopped when he realised Karkat couldn't hear him. "N-no. We are, not close enough..." He tried to get in contact with it, but it refused to listen.

Karkat growled and studied the ship before him. "Sollux, do you see that? I think those are doors. Use your psychic shit to get them open."

"Fine." Sollux's hands grasped the armrests of his chair as he focused on what looked like a hatch. Tav sighed in relief as what was, indeed, a hatch opened to what looked like a docking bay. There were small, broken ships everywhere, the pieces scattered like there had been a fight. Tavros recognised none of their designs as the scout landed, sliding out its thin, delicate landing gear.

Tavros immediately had the scout scan the air for breathability after he heard Sollux close the bay doors, the sound of it resealing was disturbingly loud.

The crying of the ship was nearly deafening as well. He tried to reach out to it, tried to see if he could calm it or something, but was rebuffed. It was like it was curling in on itself, shying away from pain. He would have to find a terminal or something before he tried again, so it couldn't throw him out.

"The scout says the air is, uh, breathable. We should be fine without our breathing gear..."

"Lets just get out. The crew should be around here somewhere. Keep your weapons on you just in case. And fucking be ready to shoot should anyone that appears be hostile." Karkat said as he finished locking the ship in place.

The back opened and Tavros wheeled himself out, grabbing his pack and slinging it behind him on the way. The first thing that he noticed was how warm it was, the second was just how large the docking bay room was. It held what he thought may have been a system to hold the small ships that lay scattered around in pieces, which were all leaking a pinkish fluid. Their ship hardly took up any room at all.

"I don't recognise any of these models. Do you?" Tavros eyed the stains of blue and and green and yellow on the floor. It looked like someone had thrown paint cans everywhere. Not very good paint at that. It flaked when he went over it.

Lights flashed on, illuminating the surrounding area. It was larger than he expected, with two levels. Tavros couldn't hold back his wonder, despite the voice. The walls were arched and oddly shining. He frowned when he couldn't make out any edges or seams. It was like this was all grown. But they didn't have anything near that technology. There was not a soul to be seen in the surrounding area, just more paint.

Sollux grimaced as he exited. His weapon was drawn, but not at the ready. One gloved hand was raised over his face. "It smells like death." He rubbed absently at the paint on the ground with a foot as he scanned the room.

Karkat followed after, weapon out as well. "Hello? There anyone here?" He yelled out, listening carefully. He swore as he looked around.

"D-Do you think they're all dead?" Tavros asked, as he turned on Tink, the screen automatically folded out, throwing up the results of the life form scan she was doing.

"There are no people in the vicinity..." He read out, pressing a few buttons. He couldn't talk to Tink with his mind, the wailing was so loud.

Karkat scanned the area biting his lips.

"Sollux, you get to come with me. We can at least make it to the bridge, or control room or what ever they have here. If there is anyone here, they'll be there. Tavros, stay with the scout. If we don't get in contact with you in 40 minutes, get out of here. And for the love of fucking god, do not wander off." He had turned towards Tavros. "Where the hell is your weapon?"

He fumbled for a second, but pulled a small pistol that had been strapped from his chair. "It's right here." He held it awkwardly, he hardly ever used it.

Karkat frowned, but shrugged it off. "Just keep an eye out. Lets go, Sollux, the sooner we find the bridge, the sooner we can make sure there is no one here." The duo left cautiously down the hallway in front of them. It wasn't long before they were out of sight.

Tav looked around worriedly, hands rubbing at the casing of the weapon. The wailing was driving him nuts. He needed to help this ship, but Karkat had told him to stay here. His eyes scanned the ceiling, like it would tell him him what was wrong with her. He looked back to the doorway they had disappeared down.

A particular pained cry made him wince. He wouldn't be able to hear anything sneaking up at this rate. He put the gun in is lap and wheeled himself to the side. There were windows there. It looked like a computer room. Maybe he could connect there.

He smiled when the door opened. It was a computer room! But it was cramped. There was a control panel under the window and against the far wall, with 3 rows of monitors. He got stuck on the doorway, however. He frowned at it but twisted behind himself and tossed his bag to the right, letting it land out of the way next to the door. He could get it later.

He wheeled himself to the control panels with the monitors above them. There was more of the paint splashed around here in great arches. He hoped it hadn't damaged the controls. He frowned at the strange symbols on they keys. Those weren't English, or any other language that he recognised...

He brought up Tink in front of him, and started typing on the virtual keyboard. Her voice was so tiny and small, he could hardly hear it. He wondered if she could hear him. At his command two cords extended from Tink and he handled them carefully as he went to look for a place to hook her up. It took him a few seconds. He desperately hopped that his didn't short her or electrocute him.

It did neither when he jammed the connection in. It seemed to give Tink some trouble as the screen froze and filled with lines and lines of the text that looked familiar to the kind he had seen when he first got the SOS message.

He braced a hand on his head, trying in vain to block out the ship's never ending wail. Only the sudden flashing lights got his attention. It seemed like Tink had gotten through.

Tavros smiled as the lights on the display monitors blinked on one by one. The computers were compatible like he had expected them to be. The 27 monitors turned on one by one. It appeared to be a security feed, if what he was seeing were the ships hallways. His smile froze though. The second one on the right was showing an open door, with a figure standing in it. It was standing next to the pack he had left outside of the room...

He turned his head, praying that nothing was there and froze with a squeak of fear.

An tall, broad shouldered being stood in the doorway. It was like someone had opened the door to the uncanny valley. The being looked humanoid, and male, with a set of arms and legs and one head. But that was where the similarities ended. While it was tall and broad, everything about this creature was unbelievably sharp. It had a narrow chin, high cheekbones. The light from the working screens cast an eerie light on its gray features. Two orange horns stood out from a mess of black hair. The thing was grinning at him with a mouthful of sharp teeth obviously designed for tearing flesh from bone. The clothes it wore, while completely covering, did little to hide it's obviously fit body. But the most terrifying thing about it, though, were its eyes.

They peered from behind a pair of glasses. The sclera were yellow, while one iris was completely blue with no visible pupil. The other eye though... It looked like the iris had split into seven smaller ones, and all of them were trained on him. A deep chuckle escaped from the alien's throat as it moved closer.

He instinctively tried to roll back, but hit the wall behind him

His being trapped only seemed to make the thing laugh more. It stopped a few feet away, it's grin growing wider. It titled its head and began to speak. The sounds that came out were nothing like the sounds a human could make; a mixture of trills, chirps and clicks. None of it sounded friendly. It sent a chill up his spine and he pressed himself back into his wheelchair.

The gun in his lap made a noise as it shifted, and he reached for it, bringing it up and taking aim at the alien before him, who drew back in surprise. Though it only took a second for it to adopt a look of.. amusement?

His hands were shaking though, he couldn't keep the weapon steady. The alien said more things at him, maybe it liked to hear itself talk? It also appeared to get bored very fast, and it was also very quick. Quicker than he would have believed someone capable of moving.

It had already covered the distance between them, and had shoved his weapon aside, grabbing hold of his wrist. It's other hand had gone for his throat, making him bend his back as far as it could. He couldn't breathe and this thing was strong. Stronger than he was. His free hand grabbed the one at his neck, like it could have done something.

The creature brought its face next to his and seemed to be studying him as he slowly lost consciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

He was suddenly awake, but he couldn't see. Well, he could see but he couldn't see well. He tried blinking his eyes to get what he was seeing to make sense, but he couldn't tell if he was. It didn't help clear his vision anyway.

It was like he was hanging in the air, in a game that wasn't working. There were pieces missing, replaced by text he couldn't understand and static. Flashing and glowing and coming and going. He tried to shake his head, close his eyes, but they felt like they weren't there.

The room was dark, pitch black, but strangely enough, everything was outlined in vivid white. There were wires, cables or something, hanging on the walls and laying on the floor. They all seemed to be melding towards a spot at the centre of the room. The white edges blended there, into a thrashing mass with red and blue glowing eyes. It seemed in pain, but he found that he couldn't care. This unnerved him, but it didn't alarm him.

Suddenly, light shone into the room as a door was forced open. Sollux was there, weapon out. It was one of the only things that he could see perfectly clear. His face was slack with disbelief and horror. His weapon dropped from his gloved hands.

Sol ran into the room, yelling, but it sounded more like static, and it hurt to hear. He had thrown himself into the white mass of movement, and looked like he was trying to tear something out of it. He drew back though, his hands were shaking and he seemed to be screaming. Tavros could feel the power that Sollux was throwing out. Wait, he could see it. It was blue, and it came out in waves and ripples from his head, like a mass of ribbons.

They curled into the mass, bringing more definition, it looked like a body, but there was something wrong with it. It seemed to thrash more, tearing at the delicate ribbons of psychic energy. Sollux yelled again as he held his head, but stumbled back to the mass, and reached in. A tentacle went flying to the right, white fluid trailing after it. He slipped on the liquid, falling onto the white mass.

The room was now bathed in a red flashing light. The mass suddenly stopped moving.

-I%iti*ting 3m3rg3%cy t*%sf3r.-

-s3*rchi%g f]r *ppr]pri*t3 h]st.-

The voice was coming from the direction of the mass. But it was garbled. He heard a sound behind him and turned. A screen had sunk down, more white lined ropes were connected to it. It flickered on, and it was so bright that it glowed. Faces were flashing by faster than he could make out. Sollux had stopped tugging at the body, and had turned around, watching the screen. Finally, an image stopped on a picture of.. him. His face was upside down, resting sideways against something. The scars on his head were shining, Impossibly bright. A circle focused on his face, and letters appeared along the side.

-H]st f]und.-

- C]%%3cti]n m*d3.-

-C]mm3%c3 tr*%sf3r.-

The world around him cracked, bright red filling the empty spaces in between, the shards connected by yellow fibers that were wearing and tearing into nothing, the pieces falling away one by one. The room was getting darker, and he could only feel relief as the vision stopped.

Tavros groaned, rolling his head to the side. Ow, that hurt. His mind was reeling, there was so much going through it. He felt like he was simultaneously floating and sinking, like he had asked Tink in his sleep to turn off the gravity, but it was also still on, heavier than ever.

He was injured, a gaping hole, the levels there were sealed off, but he also knew that he was nothing wrong with his body. There was so much sound. Things whispering in his head, and he couldn't understand them, it was too fuzzy and so much.

He tried to talk, the sound raspy and quiet. It also made pain flare up in his throat and he coughed. That was real. It was real, and he tried to concentrate on it. Pain was always a good focusing point.

The sound slowly started to soften, and he heard new voices. He was confused, the words they were saying sounded familiar and alien at the same time. It was hard to sort through them.

"Vriska, you nearly killed it. The Highblood is not going to be pleased." This first voice sounded gruff, but female.

"It's not my fault the little thing is so pathetically weak. Look at that skin, nothing but paper."

What did they say? There was a rustling by him as a large hand moved his head to the left, causing him to groan and try to swat at the offending limb.

"A-Aradia?" He coughed, was he in the infirmary? did something happen? His hand went wide, and he left it draping over his chest. He didn't want to open his eyes yet. The weird sensations hadn't stopped. He hoped that whatever was happening would end soon.

"You didn't kill it at least. Its voice is so small. Was it like that before?"

"Oh, I don't know. It didn't say anything when I found it."

His neck was twisted to the left _and _he felt a finger graze the side of his head.

There was a growl. "These creatures are disgusting. Do you think these scars are from where its horns were removed?" There was the sensation of something sharp running along the too sensitive scar, causing it to tingle. The information to his brain started slowing down. He tried to shake the hand off by moving, but the person was strong...and sweaty.

"Heh, maybe its a weakling in its own race? Couldn't even keep _its _horns!"

He dared to open his eyes now that the information stream had slowed. It was dark in here. There were small glowing lights around the edge of what he was on, and along the walls, but they were so dim he could barely see a thing. He needed light-

The lights overhead snapped on, illuminated the two faces that towered over him. One was familiar, it was the creature that had choked him in that room (SECURITY SECTION 45...why did he know that?). The other was similar. It's face was even more angled that the other, and it sported a pair of cracked lenses with blue bags underneath. Its hair was loose, long and impossibly straight, parted by a set of horns, one of them looked broken. It was sneering at him and he could see it had broken teeth.

They all screamed. The aliens shielded their eyes and he threw himself off the table, landing on the tiled floor. He dragged himself to the wall as far as he could go. The pair of Aliens in the room both shielded their eyes from the lights. They were spitting and cursing, the one with the straight hair had moved to a wall and was slamming on some buttons, breaking them, the lights flickered.

Tavros's eyes whipped around the room, he needed to get out. Where was the door?

A swooshing sounded next to him as a set of doors opened, spilling bright light into the dark hall. He looked back at the two, who were still stumbling around, and promptly started dragging himself away. The door shut behind him, cutting off the harsh sounds.

He had to get back to the scout, get a hold of Karkat and Sollux. Where were they? He froze as the hallway disappeared, and the docking bay was before him, or below. Karkat was there, along with Sollux and they were yelling. Both were covered in what looked like yellow paint. An empty wheelchair and pack sat next to them. He had to tell them that this was an alien ship. Tell them to run, to get back to Aradia. There was a crackling overhead before he suddenly heard his own voice amplified, "Karkat! This is Tavro-"

"Woah, where you heading off to motherfucker?" The image of his squad mates fizzled out. He was grabbed by the front of his brown uniform and brought up close to another alien. This one looked female, terrifyingly tall and was snarling in his face. Its teeth were crooked and stuck out slightly. Its face was caked white paint, except where it exaggerated the mouth and around its eyes, it looked like it had tried and failed to make a ying-yang on it's face, the two halves didn't touch...

His hands snapped to the wrists on his shirt. The skin felt so thick and weird. It tilted its head and squinted at him. "You are one funny looking motherfucker, brother." It looked past him and he really wished he had the use of his legs. It's hooded gaze turned back to him. "Looks like you're a wiggly motherfucker, too."

She held him up higher, frowning at his legs. "That fucker better not have broken your legs." The light behind him fizzled out, leaving small glowing lights along the hallway the only light source. It made the creature's eyes shine, the indigo irises glowing. That just made it more terrifying.

"Fuck, calm your ass down. I don't want to hurt you." It wrinkled its nose. The door opened behind them. "Equius, what happened?" She started forwards, easily carrying his weight. These things were strong.

"Ah! Highblood. The lights turned on to full power. Seeing as we haven't had any power for the last few days, we were blinded." There was what sounded like a cough. "I am glad to see you recaptured the alien."

Tavros twisted his head to look at it, er, her. He was pretty sure those were breasts on top of all that muscle. She seemed to be sweating.. blue? "I can take it from you, if you would like."

"Nah, don't sweat it sister. I got him. Least, I think it's a him." It carried him back, setting him down on the table he was on before. The control panel on the wall was severely broken, pink sludge was seeping out of the ruptured tubes.

The third alien was still over by the side of the room, rapidly blinking and muttering under his breath. A hand gripped Tavros's chin (why did they keep grabbing his chin?) and tilted his head up. "Are these fucking bruises? Vriska. What did you fucking do to it?"

"Just choked it a little. Not my fault that its skin's so delicate. It's weaker than a newly hatched wriggler."

The painted alien just seemed to give one heavy sigh.

"Just, get the fuck out of here before I motherfuckin' lose it." She twisted around "NOW." A strong shot of fear ripped through Tavros, and he leaned away. The broken glasses alien started to sweat again, and it seemed torn between standing still and moving back. The lone male (Vriska, was that it's name?) made a hasty exit.

The painted one had finally moved out of his space. It ran a hand through it's hair, looking exasperated. The second it let go of him he tried to move back, and found the edge of the table. His mouth opened and shut uselessly as he tried to search for words in his terrified, overloaded mind.

"Please tell me you speak Alternian. This'd be easier if you fuckin' could. 'Least let me know if you and the other two are friends or not?" The painted one looked at him from under it's hair.

He tried to speak to it, but the only words that came out were in English. "Uh- You..." He trailed off when the creature gave him a confused frown.

She gave an exasperated sigh and moved away from him, apparently deeming him unimportant for now, and towards another table where Tavros could just make out the prone bandaged form of another alien. "How is Fef?"

"His breathing is better. And the antibiotics I found are working." The sweating alien's, Equius's, voice moved away, talking more quietly. "...Highblood, if we do not get a steady power source, we cannot seal the wound or fix the damage inside with the machines here. The power surge that turned on the lights is gone now. I... I worry for his life." They were both too far away to for him to make out their faces.

"We can't do anything. The helmsman up and motherfucking died. We don't even have anyone to replace him. Are you sure there ain't nothin' you can do?"

Tavros shifted in his seat. He had given up trying to figure out why he could understand their speech, how it was making more and more sense as time went on. He wasn't a medic, that was more Aradia's thing, but he did know basic field medicine. Maybe if he could see...

He started, along with the aliens, as the lights suddenly blinked on again. Causing them both to cringe and bare their teeth. They were probably sensitive to the light. The lights dimmed as he thought that and he froze, looking at the ceiling. He imagined them brighter, and they went brighter. Equius was looking around worriedly at the lights. The painted one, Highblood, seemed to be immediately put on edge. Tavros was freaking out.

He, he had control of the ship. The emptyness that he felt in his own body was the hole in the hull. HE could feel every inch of the ship. Oh god, oh god. A growl escaped the tall one. "Equius! get the lights to calm the fuck down!"

He needed to talk with them somehow... There was a tall computer screen to his right. His heart was pounding. He needed to talk to them, ask them what the hell was going on.

He concentrated on the screen, he needed it on. He could... what could he do? He could re-rout power from... from... the cut off sections. They didn't need life support there! The ship, his other body, reacted fast. The screen crackled on, flickering slightly before it became a solid black. The two creatures (Trolls, they were called trolls, or.. Alternians? There was so much new knowledge swimming around his mind, knowledge that he couldn't even process right now) turned their attention to the screen. It was hard concentrating, and he could feel the sweat on his brow. He needed a message. What to say?

-Hi, thi- he stopped the computer from finishing. It was in English. The Trolls were starting at it stupidly. He thought hard. He needed their language, uh..

He closed his eyes, and concentrated on the... machine, what was he even concentrating on? Okay, that didn't really matter, he just needed words, he needed to translate. It was like jumping into the deep end of a pool when the information about the Trolls language flooded his mind. He tried to get it under control. It... was really complicated. He didn't think he could even say any of these words... but he could definitely write something.

**-My name is Tavros, I am a HUMAN. Uh... I come in peace?-**

The two trolls stared dumbly at the screen then turned their attention to him. He gave them a shaky smile.

**-Could.. Could someone please tell me what happened here?-**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

AN: Thank you for the reviews! The story takes place far into earth's future, maybe around a few hundred years. Sburb never happened and the charactors are all around their early 20's or equivalents.

And as for the genderbending, this was more for a friend, my darling beta, who wanted some tav/Fem!gam to read. So I obliged them and decided just to gender swap the highbloods, for symmetry's sake.

Oh, and my beta has drawn some lovely things for this story, you can go check them out at my homepage.

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><p>The two trolls froze for a second, just staring at him, wide eyed.<p>

"Uh..."

Highblood seemed to come out of her stupor first. She moved a little closer. "Did.. are you controlling the ship? Did, did you up and replace the helmsman?"

Tavros had edged back at the incredulity in it's voice. He didn't know what a helmsman was or if he had replaced him. He hoped he hadn't taken over someones job... He pointed to the screen as he thought out the reply.

**-Uh... Well. I'm communing with it. Uh, it was, is, my specialty... -**

"Alien. Er, Taavros?" The other troll stepped forwards, she stumbled over the pronunciation, not making the right sounds. "Can you restore power to our ship?"

Tavros bit his lip at the hopeful look from the troll. He concentrated, trying to get a reading on what the ship's power levels were at. He didn't get readings from the computer in charge, what he got was something different. It was like he was looking at his own veins. It was terrifying and unnerving, but somehow beautiful, like thin pink lines crisscrossing, pulsing with life.

There were many places where the power was bleeding out, or where it stopped. There was so much damage, so much. Entire levels were without life support. He could see bodies down there that had been trapped. They were floating, clustered around the doors that had sealed themselves off, eyes popping out of their heads. And, there were streams of liquid. It... it was the paint? No. It was their blood...

Oh god, he was going to throw up.

Tavros tried to lurch to the side as he felt the bile rise up. He never had the stomach for death. He couldn't even watch any movies where people got killed. His shoulders shook as he heaved. God, those faces were never going to leave him. And they were all down there. They probably took a long time to die.

A strong hand clamped around his shoulder, making him face forwards and he was shaken, it was followed by a soft slap at his face, Highblood had grabbed him.

"Calm down, motherfucker, calm down. Stop whatever you were fuckin' doing." She held him by the shoulder more gently when she noticed he had focused on her. He felt the tears on his face.

There was unintelligible gibberish filling up the screen. The other troll, Equius, seemed to be ringing her hands, looking concerned.

"..The damage must be worse than we thought. Can you restore power to this room? The medical bay?"

"Stop making demands of him. Somethings fucking wrong. Hey, you with us here brother?" She had released him by this point, for which he was grateful. He was sure there were bruises on his arms under his suit.

He bent over, resting one of his hands on the edge of the table for support and looked at the computer, thinking hard about clearing it, trying to put the images from the security cameras out of his mind. It went back to a black screen.

**-I'm Fine. I can. I think. Give me a moment...-**

He thought back to what he had done with the screen, but applied it to the rest of the room. He mentally grabbed the lines of power, and tried to direct portions that were going to those sealed sections and sent them towards this room. Machines started turning on around him. That was good.

The room tipping, however, was not so good. His body tipped forwards, mind giving out under the unfamiliar strain of commanding so much. He passed out, again.

He opened his eyes, Highblood was leaning over him. He must have only passed out for a few moments. She grinned in relief at him.

"Fuck, thought we had lost you. Don't motherfuckin' push yourself to death."

He smiled back at her. The other troll was moving equipment around, nearby the troll laid out on the table. Were those fins on it's face? It was masculine looking, with a square jaw. It was wearing what looked like the troll equivalent of a hospital gown.

"Hey, hey. You alright there? Tavros right? Guess we should all up and motherfucking introduce ourselves. Not had the best of intros so far, eh? Sorry about Vriska. He can doesn't really listen when I say don't hurt anyone. My name is Gamzee. I'm the head of things here, a least until my fish bro wakes up. His name's Feferi, he's really the leader here." Gamzee rambled on, just grinning at him. "Man, are you sure you're a, what did you say you were again? Ah fuck, I don't remember. You sure you ain't a troll? Kina look like one, but you don't have any horns, or claws, and your skin's kinda...soft and brown and squishy." She was holding onto one hand, examining it and picking at his softer nails.

He tried to take his hands back from Gamzee, but she was very, very grabby. He went to point to the computer screen to show her that he was replying when he caught sight of Equius. There was what looked like a drill being laid out along with some towels and more bandages. He felt his stomach do a flop, he didn't want to be here when the girl went to work on her friend.

Gamzee looked over her shoulder briefly. "Oh, you probably don't want to be here when she gets all up in fish brother's chest. That's Equius by the way, Motherfuckin' awsome sister. Better at electronics, but shes the only one around here who has any idea how to treat a wound. But yeah, let's get going. I can introduce you to the others."

She got up to leave, but stopped.

"Shit, I forgot your legs don't be motherfuckin' workin'. Hold on a sec, bro." She quickly leaned down and scooped him up bridal style. Tavros gave a shout at being picked up. The screen behind him blinked with words. (**-hey put me down, I can get along just fine-**) But weren't seen by the Troll that held him. He slung an arm around her shoulders to help hold himself up. She was still rambling as she carried him to the door and out into the hallway.

It was still as dark as it was before, and he unconsciously turned on the light, bright enough for his human eyes to see. There was a lot of extra energy left over from the infirmary, so it was simple. Gamzee noticed the change and grinned wider.

"Ah, so you got some juice left? Glad you didn't burn yourself out, we kinda need you. The others should be down here somewhere. Think you can turn on the other lights?"

He thought about it, and tried to shrug. but he didn't think he could do it, at least not right now. His head was feeling a bit woozy, and he rested his head on her shoulder

"If you're running off to fill buckets, Gamzee, you might want to be more secretive about it. Might make me jealous. Could go on a rampage." Tavros lifted his head, a new troll had just turned a corner.

He was shorter than Gamzee was, and sported red accented clothing and a pair of black shades. His hair was swept back behind him, accented by horns that followed the same path.

He stopped though, and tilted his head to the side. "Wait, is that one of the aliens that wandered on board? Hey, how did we get the power back?"

Gamzee stopped "Yeah, this is one of them. His names Tavros. Tavros, this is Daveth. Eh, You'll get the answer to that when we get to the bridge."

Daveth just arched his eyebrow but fell in step beside Gamzee. "Heh. You better watch yourself. I think he's taken a liking to you. Hanging onto you like a cuddlbeast in heat" He had moved closer and craned his head to get a better look at Tavros.

Tavros blushed at that, he didn't know what a cuddlebeast was, but he did understand heat. Daveth seemed surprised.

"Is it blushing? Can it understand us? Yo, can you understand the amazing words that are coming out of my fantastic mouth?"

Tavros only nodded, a bit annoyed. He didn't have to talk to him like he was a kid. "Yeah, the little guy can understand you perfectly, I think. Gotta wait till we get to the bridge still, don't got a grubtop on me." Gamzee replied. Daveth shrugged, but fell into line behind her, covertly examining the creature his leader was carting around.

Thankfully, the blush had mostly retreated when they reached the... he though it may be the bridge, or command center. There was a central chair with a bunch of controls in front. There was also other desks littered around the room, mostly against the walls. The ceiling was domed, and half of it seemed to be made of a different material. Oddly, there was a pile of horns pushed off to one side.

There were two Trolls here, One was sitting in a chair, it's legs crossed at the knee, it looked up when they entered. It was the troll that attacked him. Vriska? Yeah the name was Vriska. Tavros made a mental note to keep an eye on him. The other troll was sitting next to him, tapping away at the keys. It gave a quick lick to the screen, two cone-like horns stood proudly from its messy looking hair.

"Hey Gamzee! Did you know the power came back on? Hehehe- hey, who's that with you?" It had turned around. It was wearing a bright red pair of glasses on it's face. It grabbed a white cane leaning on the console beside it.

"Ooo! Is that one of the aliens?" She didn't seem to be actually using the cane much, just hitting the ground randomly as she made straight for them, "He smells so sweet!"

Vriska had followed, grinning. "Looks like the little pupa is alright."

Tavros couldn't help the wince that he made as he tried to shrink back into Gamzee's arms, which wasn't very effective. He really didn't want to talk to Vriska, or even be near him really.

"Hey, hey. Lay off Vriska, he's motherfuckin' off limits to you." She moved over to the chair in the middle of the room and placed him down carefully. "He's off limits to everyone. I don't motherfuckin' know how, but he's our new helmsman."

The trio stared at her. "Our helmsmen? He can't be our helmsman. He would need to be hooked up, and he's here, so he's not, so he can't be." The troll who hadn't been introduced had spoken up, mouth twisted in mild confusion.

"Hey, I don't motherfuckin know how but he i-"

"Yeah right. Lets just kill them and take their ship. There is no way something that weak could handle a ship like this-"

It was quickly falling into bickering, and he still had no idea why. What was a helmsman? He tried to access the information about it, but it was missing like a black hole. Maybe something had been destroyed it. The fight seemed to be getting more heated. His eyes were drawn back to the main screen.

He gripped the edges of the chair and concentrated, gently guiding the excess energy in the room. The screen turned on, and the trolls all looked toward it.

**-Um. Excuse me. What is a Helmsmen? I can't find the meaning to it, uh, anywhere. I think some of the memory banks are broken, or missing. Umm, I'm not even sure what exact computer I am interfacing with, here.-**

The quartet started at him. Daveth broke the long silence. "There is no machine or grubtop for you to connect with here. You are the computer. You. That is what a helmsman is."

"Our helmsman doesn't even know what he is doing. Juuuuuuuust great."

Tavros scrunched up his face in confusion. HE was the computer? Him? That. That couldn't be right. He had to be communing with something. His abilities didn't work like that.

**-My, abilities don't work that way. They just don't. I have to be communing with something.-**

"Look brother, Helmsmen are connected to the ship directly, they control and power it with their pscionic energy. Our Helmsmen died. Well, his mind was dead, but the ship kept his body alive, kept it alive to keep itself running. We had no-one to motherfucking replace him at all. The trolls who could all died when the highbloods set off the self-destruct on this ship. Something stopped it from completely blowing it up, small motherfucking miracles. I have no idea how the ship switched from our dead Helmsman to you without you being hooked up, but it did."

His blood was pounding in his ears. The whole ship. He was controlling the whole ship directly, no interface, no computer doing it for him. But how was he even powering it? Was that why he was feeling so woozy?

**-Who are the highbloods? Why did they try to destroy it?-**

"You can't get to the memory at all?" Daveth asked, Tavros shook his head.

"Okay, troll history 101. I am going to try to go slow, just for you. So keep your little unpointed pink ears on me." Daveth began. He took a deep breath.

"We are part of a revolution, like, a big fucking revolution, a rewrite-our-entire-society-until-it-doesn't-resemble-the-one-pre-revolution, revolution.

We had to go save Feferi. Like, he was a helpless shellbeast caught on it's back, in the Alternian sun at noon. He was going to get baked in his shell, seriously roasted. See, he had gone off and killed his fish-tentacle-bitch of a lusis, who is pretty much the mother of all lusi. Fishbitch was used to keep everyone in line and only fishboy could get near it, so he had no choice, he had to be the one to kill it. When Feferi culled it, the Condesce, the finned fucking troll king, got pretty pissed off, and imprisoned Feferi's fishy behind on this here ship. Problem is, he is an integral part of our movement, like the main fucking event, the one where you suffer through terrible terrible acts just to se, He is even more important than me, and I am pretty important.

He's the Condesce's decedent, so he's a pretty big deal. We had to rescue him, flip him back on his legs and get him out of the way of the business end of the Condesce's trident.

Things, went pretty fucking wrong, really, really wrong, the complete opposite of right, we had made a date with right but then right pulled a bait and switch and we ended up going out with her ugly sister wrong and she ate all the food and left us with the bill.

We were supposed to capture this ship quietly, like a bunch of tiny squeakbeasts, get it back to our revolutionary headquarters and shine like the fucking knights we are instead of slightly tarnished knights who lost their helmets and shields. And hoofbeasts, we also lost the hoofbeasts.

We were not on the ball. The ball wasn't even in the same room as us, or even the same ship, The ball was in another fucking universe all together and we were not acquainted with the ball.

The highbloods here had regrouped enough when we tried to take over and set something off that damaged the ship, blew a giant hole in the left hull, had it leaking all its innards and fluids and other things that are important for a ship to run smoothly, and fried our Helmsmen like Gamzee here fried her brain on sopor pies, but much worse. We were fucking stranded, like a wingbeast without its fucking wings. Shit sucked."

"Now though, we are slightly less screwed than a troll with no quadrants on the day the drones come and shove the two buckets in their face. You are now our helmsmen and you can get us out of here and back to our place of revolutionary plan-making which we really need to get to, like yesterday, or really, more like a week ago. We are not even fashionably late anymore, not even ironically fashionably late."

Tavros could only stare at the trolls. He didn't understand most of what had just been said. It was running around in his overwhelmed mind and it wasn't sticking very well. They needed him to fly this ship. He didn't even know if it was functional enough to do so. And he needed to get back to his squad mates before they thought he'd been eaten by aliens, and declare the trolls as enemies of all humankind...

He had to talk this over with Karkat. Karkat would know what to do. Yeah.

**-I need to talk with my squadron mates, before I, make any rash decisions...-**


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thank you for the reviews! Enjoy the next part

**Chapter 5**

Alarms went off in his head suddenly, and with a shout, he leaned to the side, clutching his head with one hand, the other gripped the chair's armrest. It was like someone had taken a hammer and started pounding on the inside of his head. Purple lights were flashing bright and blinding. He couldn't see.

He felt a pair of hands grab him, forcing his hand away and titling in his head back. There was yelling in the background but he couldn't make out what they were saying over the blaring sounds.

What was happening? An image clouded his vision. It was the ship, well, more like a projection. The sight of it made something turn in his stomach, he could feel the damage. There was a section on the right side that was flashing, the asteroid they had been floating next to had a long pointed edge, which had pierced the hull and was dragging along the side, gutting them. Clean air and parts were drifting out. The breach was close to the ships internal systems. He sealed off the sections there, hoping that he didn't catch anyone.

He needed to get out of here. But it hurt to think. Oh god it hurt to think. He thought he felt tears prickle at his eyes. His body was shaking, or was it being shaken. All he could hear and see was the damage. He needed to get out.

Aradia was past the asteroid field. He just had to find her, and get himself there. He scanned for ships, the ships scanners almost dismissed HOB, not knowing how to categorize it, would have ignored it if it wasn't for him. He locked onto her location. Okay, he just had to get there.

But there were so many asteroids they would be torn apart. -(SHIELDS ACTIVATED)- He half swooned into the body of whoever was holding him. He was pretty sure he was shaking. Oh God.

He didn't know how long he could keep the shield up, his head was still ringing. Did the engines, or what ever they had, work? Didn't Gamzee say they were busted? They were. Both had been blown, but they were organic. They could grow back. He could get them to grow back.

Another alarm, he didn't know how he felt it over the others, went off in his head. He needed to get out of here. Now. The ship gave a lurch forwards, he felt the engines stuttering as they fought to function normally. It veered oddly, twisting to the side.

No no no. He didn't want to go that way. He didn't need to go that way. He needed to go the other way. He put more energy into one engine, and felt his head droop more. Did he close his eyes?

When he righted the ship, he was heading in Aradia's direction again. He could hear things hitting the shield, could feel it bouncing off. He got a second to hear something loud, more warning signals. Something large was heading towards them, the engines weren't enough to turn him.

-(WEAPONS SYSTEM ACTIVATED)-

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><p>He woke up to screaming and groaned. His head was pounding and his eyes hurt. His whole body hurt. He thought he tasted something metallic in his mouth.<p>

"What the fuck is going on? FUCK why can't any of you alien fucktards speak English? Fucking Tavros talked to you! Jesus fuck, you guys are the most pathetic excuses for fucking aliens I have ever fucking met."

Karkat? He didn't realise that he had spoken aloud when he heard footsteps coming closer.

"Tavros! You better be fucking alive and explain what the fuck just happened-" There was a loud growling by him, it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "Stop fucking growling, godammit. I need to see if he's fucking alright and get some damn answers as to fucking WHY my ship is now scattered all over the bottomless pit that is this galaxy like someone spilt a bag of doritoes!"

HOB was destroyed? But Aradia was on there! He tried to lift his head and groaned."What..?"

"Tavros, get your dipshit guard dog aliens to let me through. Are you their alien king or something? If you are their alien king or some magical bullshit I will flip my shit so fucking hard. Even more than I am now. I will flip my shit right out of this goddamn ship and make a fucking brand new constellation that creatures on the planets around here will see and they will call it The great fucking flippening."

He groaned again and tried to open his eyes, it was like they were glued shut. It took him a second to focus on Karkat, who was cornered by the doorway, in the... medical bay? How did he get there?

"What happened?"

"You tell me. I was down by the Scout, WHERE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP YOUR WHEELCHAIR-BOUND ASS, but guess what, your ass wasn't in the damn chair! The chair wasn't even by the ship. You fucking wandered off. Where the hell did yo even go? I was having a fucking aneurysm looking for you. This was AFTER Sollux found one of the aliens glued to a damn wall. I had just gotten him to calm the fuck down and stop throwing a damn tantrum, pulling at wires and shit, getting yellow blood everywhere. Oh! And the shit we were walking on earlier, guess what. It was blood. These things have fucking multi-coloured blood. And someone mascaraed everybody on this ship and no one cleaned up the damn blood trails, and we fucking walked all over it and got it all over our damn shoes." Karkat was a few feet away, teeth grinding. He didn't get closer to him though. Sollux was nowhere to be seen in the room.

"W-Where's Sollux?"

"He is out by the main room the cat and fish douche bags dragged us to. Where we fucking found you, half passed out in that clownfucktards lap." He brought his hands to his head, tugging at his hair, pacing, he stopped, "And get it to stop growling at me. It is freaking me the fuck out." He had folded his arms by the end, though he was still grimacing, and visibly twitching. But Karkat usually got very twitchy when he got upset at something. "Now, tell me what the fuck is going on."

Tavros looked behind him, standing over him was Gamzee. Equius was by his side, between him and Karkat, she appeared to be grinding her teeth, but didn't seem to know what to do with herself.

"Well, uh, I am kinda in control of their ship right now. They need me to drive I think. I'm not very clear on what I am doing exactly..."

"You have control. Of. Their. Ship. And you fucking opened fire on HOB. Tell me. WHAT made you think that was a goddamn good idea? FUCKING WHAT? We are fucking stuck here, on a piece of alien trash ship and we can't leave!"

"Nothing's left? Is Aradia okay?"

"The ship is completely FUCKING DESTROYED. Obliterated, never to be used a-fucking-gain. Little itty bitty pieces are bouncing off this ship as we speak. We only know Aradia made it out alive because she managed to contact us through your wrist computer, thank fucking God. Now tell me WHY did you open fire on our own goddamn ship?"

"I-I don't know. There were sirens going off. I couldn't see what I was doing. I- the ship was drawing power from me. I blacked out when the weapons system went online."

Karkat looked like he was about to explode, gritting his teeth and trembling. "You don't fucking know? Commune with the goddamn ship, FUCK! How is it even drawing power from you? Why aren't you fucking dead? And goddamn, tell her I am not going to kill you or what ever she is growling about. It is a she isn't it? I don't even fucking know, these things look like monsters."

Tavros turned to the screen and tried to concentrate, but his head was still swimming, the buzzing was still extremely loud...

**~Please calm down. Human Tavros is in no danger.~**

Tavros looked confused at the words that were on the screen. "What..?"

"Your little computer bro has been talking at us. Started a little bit ago." Gamzee lent on the edge of the table, claws tapping idly, not taking her eyes from the irate human. "Tell that motherfucker to calm his shit down. It is making me motherfucking edgy." There was still a threatening growl lacing her words.

Tavros looked back at the screen, then at his wrist, where Tink was still located. He, he had no idea how she was speaking, she was an older model . Tink could only speak though emotional imprints, feelings really. Maybe it was his connection with the ship? It hurt too much to really think on it now. The buzzing in the back of his mind was growing louder.

"Can you understand what that fucking giant was saying?" Karkat snapped. "You looked like you were understanding it."

Tavros tried sitting up on one elbow, the other coming to his head, rubbing his face

"Her name is Gamzee. And, I kinda do. I'm not sure, how, exactly, I am though.. I have access to the ship's memory banks, though most of those are, destroyed, but, I guess I automatically translate it, or something. Though I can't talk back, at least not yet, I have to write the words out...I'm still not sure how all of this works, exactly."

Karkat didn't stop grinding his teeth, or clenching his hands, but he did stop pacing. "Don't tell me to fucking calm down. Our ship is gone, we are stuck on a fucking alien ship. Sollux, fuck I don't want to leave him alone. He had a nervous break or fucking something, and you. Fuck I don't even know about you." He sighed, and rubbed his face. "Can you open the bay doors so Aradia isn't just floating out there? Shes trailing this ship, whatever its called, I don't want her to get lost."

"I can." That he could definitely do. There was still power there. He thought to the doors, and opened them. He swayed slightly, laying his head back down. He wouldn't be able to commune with Tink. But Tink seemed to be able to hear or, something. "T-Tink? Can you tell Aradia to land in the bay?"

The screen on his wrist popped up, startling Gamzee slightly, if the scrapes on the table were anything to go by, and an image of Aradia's tired looking face. "Tavros?"

He couldn't turn to look at her completely, and her voice was slightly distorted. "Are you alright? I'm sorry about, firing on HOB. The bay doors are open, so you can land. Um, I'll ask if Gamzee can send down someone to bring you to us." He tried his best to concentrate on her, but the buzz was harsh and grating on him.

"I am fine. _You_ destroyed HoB? And who's Gamzee?" There was a drawn out sigh. "You will have to explain when I get there. Out." The connection cut with a sharp movement, leaving an empty screen. He sighed in relief as he managed to make a sentence.

**-Gamzee, I have another crew member, she managed to make it out of my ship before it was destroyed. She's landing in the docking bay. She will need some, help, getting to us. Could you send someone to get her?-**

A particularly sharp throb told him he probably should have asked Tink to ask, or something. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, gritting his teeth. Gamzee was looking worriedly at him, a frown on her face.

"Hey, fucking chill, don't wear yourself out. I'll have my cat brother Nepeta go get your friend." She reached in her pants pocket, retrieving a small oval shaped thing, which she brought up to her mouth.

"Hey, Nep? Eridan let me talk to Nepeta."

A femine voice carried over, though it was muffled and Tavros couldn't make out what it was saying.

"...No, there's no change with Feferi, put Nepeta on the damn line..." Gamzee started moving away, her voice going quieter.

Karkat didn't get closer, obviously disquieted by the trolls, though it seemed to be waring with his need to make sure his squad mate was fine. He ended up turning around and grabbing a wheelchair that had been by the door, next to Feferi's bed.

"Fuck. You are too messed up to even properly question. Here, I grabbed your damn wheel chair, cat and fish bastard wouldn't have bothered to fucking bring it otherwise." He wheeled it over and held it steady as Tavros slid in as carefully as he could, Gamzee leaning over and helping him turn. He gave her a friendly smile, even if her claws dug in a bit. "Lets get back to Sollux. That fish fuck was really creeping me out."

There was a groaning from the side, that had Equius moving. It was coming from where the alien Feferi was laying, his face wrinkled, the fins shifting. Karkat looked like he didn't want to be in he room any longer.

"H-Hello?" Feferi called out, quietly. There was a strong cadence to it, even if the voice itself was weak.

"My Liege, please. Don't move, you are still injured." Equius was holding her hands above the other's chest, stopping him from moving farther up, but wasn't pushing down.

He opened his eyes and stared hard at the troll holding him down before his eyes wandered around the room, landing on the two humans present. He blinked twice.

"Are those aliens?"

"Yeah brother, bad things went down after you passed out. These guys are helpin' us. This one is our new helmsmen, his name is Tavros." Gamzee spoke up, moving closer to her leader. "Glad you're awake. Eridan will be easier to deal with now."

He turned his head to the two humans again. His fins fanned him as he spoke. "You are going to have to fill me in... Equius, I'm fin, let me up. I need to get to Eridan before she skewers somebody." He pushed against the other's arm, but it didn't move

"My Liege-"

"Please Equius? I just want to make sure everyone's alright. With my own eyes." He added when he saw the strong troll start protesting. "Why don't you help me get there?" Equius only nodded as she gently helped the finned troll to his feet.

During this time, Karkat had moved behind Tavros, "Is that their king or something?"

"Well. Equius, the one with the glasses, called him Liege... and Gamzee said he was in charge when I first woke up."

There was silence as they watched the troll stand. "At least he seems friendlier than that other fish with the glasses." Karkat muttered.

The trolls started for the doors, Feferi hanging off Equius, who was sweating a bit. Gamzee looked over her shoulder, motioned for them to follow, and headed after them.

"You are going to fucking fill me in on what happened to the ship the second you can fucking think straight, you got that?"

Tavros just nodded his head, and let Karkat push him out, following the trolls back to the main room.


	6. Chapter 6

AN: thank you for the reviews, sorry for the slow updates, they may get more spaced out from here on in, things are getting a bit fun on my end haha

Chapter 6

Tavros let himself rest in wheelchair as Karkat pushed him, his head was pounding so much. He hoped whatever was causing it stopped soon. Thankfully they were making slow progress down the hall, with Feferi hanging off Equius. Gamzee was hovering over his shoulder, filling him in. He mostly just listened, once or twice casting looks behind him.

"Fef!" A tall, lean looking troll ran up as soon as they entered the doorway to the bridge. She was wearing purple accented clothing with a high collar and a pair of square glasses. Her fins looked more spiny than Feferi's and were more active, constantly puffing and swaying. She grabbed Feferi, sneering at Equius who gratefully let her take him.

She started to fuss over him, bringing his arm around her shoulders. She spared only one look at the pair of humans and sneered at them, huffing. Tavros saw Karkat tense above him, one hand going to his hip before freezing, causing Tavros to frown. "Where's your gun?"

He looked down, frowning. "The fish fuck took it and broke it when I pulled it on her after they jumped Sol. Fucking bitch..."

The new troll brought Feferi to the commander's chair, setting him down as gently as she could. The other Trolls who were around the room looked up at the commotion. Sollux at the other side of the room, next to some of the control panels, looking very uncomfortable. Two trolls had apparently cornered him there, Daveth and the one troll with the stick, who seemed to be asking questions at him and sniffing the air around him. When Sollux saw Karkat come through after the trolls, he hurried over, bumping against Daveth in his hurry.

"About time you came back. These things do not care for personal space." Sollux said as he walked over, rubbing his arms, gritting his teeth. "You look like shit."

"He looks like fucking shit because the ship is draining energy or something from him. He's not very fucking coherent now." Karkat replied as he moved Tavros to the side, away from the door.

Sollux didn't say anything, but looked worriedly at Tavros.

"I'm, fine, really. I have control of the ship at least! But, we are, really, going to need to find something else for it to draw power from, besides me, that is. I, don't know how long I can keep doing this…"

"Shit." Sollux half crouched, and, grabbing Tavros' head gently, he tilted it back, and studied his teamate's face. He frowned, as if he didn't like what he was seeing and then dragged his thumbnails along the scars, sending a sudden tingling up Tavros' spine. The pain started to lessen, or rather, the constant buzzing and flow lessened.

Tavros' eyes widened, "What, what did you do? Thank you, I mean, It's easier to think."

Sollux straightened, bringing his hands back, "It shouldn't have worked. Putting pressure on the enhancement scars shuts down a manufactured psychic's ability, but you're a natural… " He studied him, still frowning. "It must have rewired your brain completely for that to even work." He snorted.

Tavros ran his fingers along his scars experimentally, the flow had pretty much stopped, but the pain was still there, behind his eyes. "Thanks." Concentrating was easier, and he turned his focus onto Tink as Karkat tried to pry more information about the psychic labs out of Sollux.

"Tink?" He asked out loud, bringing his wrist up higher, though that probably didn't matter. The display screen slid out, Tink's response coming immediately.

**~Hello Tavros. I will not be able to converse long, ICRA 9 has switched to me as it's primary energy source, as neither it nor I can make a stable connection with you at the moment.~**

He could still imagine her song of sorts in the background but it was significantly dimmed.

"Oh. Is it, because of what Sollux did? And, how is the ship drawing from you, precisely?"

**~I do not completely know. I assume that because we were in such close proximity, and had been communing, it assumed we were the same being, and forced a connection to the both of us.~ **

"Oh, uh-" He had been about to continue, but then Gamzee called out. "Hey alien brothers, get over here. " The small group had turned their attention to the humans, Gamzee waving them over. Feferi looked particularly excited, well, he assumed excited, his fins were other trolls had joined in a partial circle around their leader.

"Tavros, you better be fucking translating what they are going to be saying." Karkat said, as he pushed the wheel chair.

"Feferi, this here is Tavros, like I was just telling you about. I don't know who the other two motherfuckers are…" Gamzee started.

Tavros smiled, and indicated to his two teamates.

"Karkat, Sollux" he introduced respectively. He looked to the main screen, which was currently acting as a view port. He changed it to a black screen, which thankfully didn't bother him too much. Hopefully he could get some sentences written without passing out.

**-Hello Feferi, or, should I say king? I don't really know….-**

Feferi leaned closer, a sharp toothed smiled lighting up his face.

"Just call me Feferi! It is nice to meet you Tavros. Gamzee said you were the new Helmsmen! This is so exciting! I have never seen another alien species before! At least, not one that hadn't been conquered and enslaved by my ancestor. You still have all your culture and language! Oh, there is so much I want to ask you, but that must wait! We need to get back to one of the ports, so we can let everyone know that Daveth and I are both fin, and that we can continue as planned. I need to know how much of the ship has been damaged, and how long the repairs will take."

Tavros' mind whirled at the fast paced speech. There was an odd 'glubbing' to it, though it didn't really throw him off too much.

**-There is a lot that is damaged. I'm not sure, how long it will take for it to repair itself…- **

Karkat and Sollux were both looking at him expectantly, he would have to say something.

"He just wants to know how long the, repairs to the ship will take. He said we have to go to... somewhere. I don't know how to translate that. He seems excited to meet an alien species…" He didn't add the part about the conquering bit. He must have heard that wrong.

"Go with them? Fuck no. We have to get back to Zillyhoo right fucking now. No detours, no goddamn pit-stops. This will be a one way fucking ticket back to where we came from." Feferi only seemed to get more interested and excited as Karkat yelled, and didn't seem the least bit disturbed. Gamzee looked a little concerned at the yelling. The other finned one looked rather impatient.

"Karkat, they have something to do though, they, really, need to get there. Ugh. They said earlier, I think, that they were part of a revolution-"

"Fuck no. Do not fucking finish that. A revolution? These guys are a fucking revolution? No. We will not be assisting these things. We will be staying out of alien politics. We shouldn't have even made fucking contact." Karkat had started to pace a bit. Sollux just stood there, watching the two.

"But Karkat, we should help them. At least, we could just drop them off where they need to go. Uh."

** -How far is it to the nearest safeport?- **

"It's just a bit past the next Galaxy brother. It will take a pedigree to get there. Something wrong?"

**-My commander wants to return to the nearest human spaceport…- **

The female troll with the fins sputtered "What?" Gamzee's eyes narrowed, along with Equius' and the other trolls, though it was hard to tell with Daveth.

"Tavros, that is not an option for us. We NEED to get there." Feferi leaned back in his seat a bit, no longer looking as excited as he had been.

Tavros tried to smile at them, though they didn't seem too reassured. He turned back to Karkat, as he thought about the unfamiliar term, he couldn't access the memory banks right now, maybe it was something like a week? "They said that it would only take a, week, I think."

"No, we are going back to Zillyhoo. End of discussion. You tell them that." Tavros cast a look back at the trolls, who were starting to look antsy.

"Karkat, can we at least think about it, if that's okay? We won't be able to move right away, anyway. Not until I find another power source for the ship. I'm not sure how long that will take…"

"What are you pink things even arguing about?" The female finned troll asked with a wavy accent.

"No. We are not staying here-"

The door slid open, one of the shortest Trolls that Tavros had seen came bounding through. He had two largish cone-shaped horns, sticking out form a mop of mane-like hair. He wore a green accented suit and had a blue... tail swishing behind him.

"Feferi! I'm glad you're alright!" He bounded over to the group, checking on Feferi, before going to stand by Equius.

Aradia was trailing behind him and stomped over to where the humans stood, she looked out of breath, but no worse for wear. It didn't stop Karkat from looking her over. "Are you fine? Cat fuck didn't scratch you or anything with those retractable claws of his?"

Aradia knocked Karkat's hand away. "I am perfectly alright. Please, explain what the situation is to me."

Karkat scowled at her "The ship is going to get fixed, then we are going to turn around, and report back to Zillyhoo."

"Karkat, we should drop them off where they need to go first-"

"No, I am not helping revolutionaries. That is not a thing that is going to happen."

"Karkat-"

"Wait. We have to stay here while the ship repairs itself? It does not need to go to a port to get repairs done?" Aradia asked.

"No, I can get it to regrow. The ship is, completely, organic, from what I can, tell.. I, don't know how long it will take though…"

"Does the communication system work?"

Tavros frowned as he looked down at Tink, she apparently had still been listening, and confirmed that yes, it was functioning. "Uh, yeah, Tink says it is..."

"Tink? Isn't that what you called the Tech system?"

"Well, yeah, I did, well, it is Tink..."

Aradia sighed, but seemed to ignore the admission and the breach of protocol, and the danger he had put her in with taking the AI from the ship.

"Never mind. The communication system is working and we know that the signals from these ships can be received by our own. Why don't we send a message to Zillyhoo and wait for a response while the ship repairs itself. We can decide on what to do then."

Karkat looked like he was about to explode, but Aradia quickly cut him off. "I assume they cannot understand us?" She got a nod from Tavros, "If these aliens are the only ones on board, they still outnumber us 4 to 1 Karkat. Let them think we are going with what they want."

Karkat seemed to accept this, and ground his teeth, before turning to Tavros with a sigh. "Tell them that we will get them to where they need to go. Do not tell them that we are waiting for a fucking message."

**-We will bring you to, wherever it is, you need to go.-**

Feferi smiled, though the other finned one didn't stop eyeing them.

"Good. Nepeta, can you show our new friends where they can sleep? They must be tired."

Nepeta, the one with the tail smiled. "Right away! The empty respite blocks are this way!" He started back towards the door, stopping only to wait for the humans to move.

"Uh, they are going to show us where we can, sleep I think. They called it a respite block." Karkat scowled. It was obvious that they wanted to discuss things alone.

"Fine, lets get going. I'm fucking tired anyway." Started to push Tavros.

"I-I got it Karkat." Tavros objected. Karkat grunted, but didn't stop pushing.

"Fuck no. Save your damn strength. I don't want you passing out or something. The clownfuck was not fun to deal with when the ship fucking drained you to the point of unconsciousness"

Aradia walked next to Tavos, "The ship is drawing power from him?" a frown sat on her face at the nod. "Have you thought about implementing the engine designs from our ship, or models? Tink should have the schematics.."

As the group followed Nepeta, the other trolls behind them started talking.


End file.
